I spent the weekend in Atlanta attending Dragon CON with no springs and my girlfriend. It was her first time to a convention of any sort, but she seemed to take to it and made talk about going again next year (she even said she thought it would be more fun if we each had costumes to wear). While it was great to have her there, the CON itself was rather lackluster. Christopher Judge was highly entertaining in his panels and was quite nice when I went by his booth, but the convention as a whole just seemed lacking. The soul of it was just not there.

That being said, up until Labor Day it was still not the worst convention ever. The year when Dragon CONcoincided with GenCON still held onto that title. However, on Monday all of that changed. I had woken up that day planning on making one last pass at the dealer’s room and visiting the artexhibit with my girlfriend to pick out anything she wanted. However, I got a call from her asking me to come down to the parking lot. When I arrived, she showed me that someone had thrown a brick through her driver’s side window and had stolen her coin bag and compact disc player. We then went back to the hotel to file a police report. After calling the police, we went back to the parking lot to wait for their arrival. When we got back, the car was gone.

I called up the number listed for the impounding service and inquired if they had the vehicle. They told me no, so I then called up 911 to report that the car was now stolen. After speaking with the officer and her insurance company, I decided the convention was shot and drove her back to her place. I then found out that after she had paid off the car, she stopped her comprehensive coverage and only had liabilityinsurance. In other words, she was out $16,000 if the car could not be recovered. I stopped by the Wal-Mart and bought her enough food and other items to last for several weeks. I asked if she wanted me to stay an extra night, but she said there was really nothing I could do there and we both had work the next day, so I started my five hour drive back home.

As of yet, there has been no word from the police. I know she can walk to work and has enough necessities for a while, but I still feel awful that she is having to go through this ordeal and I wish I lived closer so I could help her get through this.